Camera

Cameras get a lot of love with these two, which they should, especially when we’re talking about being big here. Interestingly enough, they go in the opposite directions in how they approach it. Going on the side with bigger is better, the Lumia 1520’s beefy sized 20-megapixel PureView camera is sure to cause a ruckus with its larger sized sensor (1/2.5”), dual-LED flash, f2.4 aperture Zeiss lens, and optical image stabilization module. Conversely, HTC continues to put its money on its “UltraPixel” technology, which amounts to having a 4-megapixel snapper, f2.0 aperture lens, and LED flash. As for their front-facing cameras, it’s a 1.2-megapixel one in the Lumia 1520, and a larger 2-megapixel one in the One max.

Camera interface of the Nokia Lumia 1520

Camera interface of the HTC One max

Being camera centric and all, it perfectly makes sense why the camera app of the Lumia 1520 closely mimics that of a normal point and shoot – where we’re given fine controls to modify certain elements. Even though the One max also lays claim to several manual controls, it doesn’t have the ability to manually adjust the focus on the fly like the Lumia 1520. However, its camera app incorporates the many shooting modes that give some people plenty of time to fool around with – whereas with the Lumia 1520, we’re required to rely on other apps, namely the Nokia Studio Creator app, to apply various filters and effects to our shots.With outdoor shots, you’ll be surprised to know that the One max puts up some good results that rivals the quality from the 5-megapixel samples out of the Lumia 1520 – albeit, it doesn’t match the awesome detail superiority put forth from those beefier full-sized 19-megapixel samples.

Under lower lighting situations, however, the Lumia 1520 really puts its foot forward by coughing up the sharper shots, which is attributed to the optical image stabilization feature of the Lumia 1520 keeping things steady so it’s able to capture the clearer shots. In comparison, the HTC One max’s low lighting performance seems to be more over-exposed and more prone to blurring – with diminished detail quality, obviously. Lastly, it’s worth noting that the Lumia 1520’s dual-LED flash is more potent than the single one from the One max.

22. HTC One max

23. Nokia Lumia 1520

24. HTC One max

25. Nokia Lumia 1520 - Strong light

26. HTC One max - Strong light

27. Nokia Lumia 1520 - Medium light

28. HTC One max - Medium light

29. Nokia Lumia 1520 - Low light

30. HTC One max - Low light

31. Nokia Lumia 1520 - 3ft flash

32. HTC One max - 3ft flash

33. Nokia Lumia 1520 - 5ft flash

34. HTC One max - 5ft flash

35. Nokia Lumia 1520 - 7ft flash

36. HTC One max - 7ft flash

Crazy to believe it, but it’s actually HTC’s phablet that wins in the 1080p video recording quality department. Out of everything, it’s simply the toned down details of the Lumia 1520’s results that distracts us so much – to the point where it looks extremely subdued in comparison to the One max’s videos. Additionally, there’s more noise present in the Lumia 1520’s low lighting video performance. Naturally, the results are better with the HTC One max. Well, except for its overly sharp audio recording quality. Aside from that, we’re pleased with everything else it brings to the table.

Sample Videos

1. Nokia Lumia 1520 Sample Video

2. HTC One Max Sample Video

3. Nokia Lumia 1520 Night Sample Video

4. HTC One Max Night Sample Video

Multimedia

We’ll admit, we’re totally in love with the music players on both devices, just because they have very animated interfaces. With the HTC One max, it’s able to supplement its visuals by being able to display accompanying lyrics to songs – giving it a very karaoke-like experience. Impressively, the single speak of the Lumia 1520 is able muster up the same commanding volume tones pumped out by the One max’s dual-firing speakers with HTC BoomSound.

The XBOX Music player on the Nokia Lumia 1520

Music player of the HTC One max

Blessed with ginormous displays that are rich with detail, further complemented by smooth performances, it’s hard to make a decision on which we like more when it comes to watching high-definition 1080p videos. Knowing that they also offer support for various video codecs out of the box, we’re going to have to call it a tie.

What's interesting is that so far, Sprint customers are loving the HTC One Max and the reviews are pretty much 5 stars. It's only the start, so the ratings might change, but I'm curious to see just how long and how many customers will continue giving this phone an awesome rating.

Dude, I have the one max.. for over 1 month now.
the UI and screen quality are so nice that you I would rate it a 6 star i can.
by far, I can not find any phablet out there in the market that has a better screen . can you?
i do admit that the 1520 has a better camera..
but i am not sure if you gonna live with the windows UI..

if you never had a htc one or one max.. you won't know how brilliant the blinkfeed is.. it's such a great feature..
well.. you just won't konw until you own one.

The S600 can still run everything without breaking a sweat, so specs are irrelevant at this point. What really matters is the OS, and WP is inferior to Android in every single way. I would take any high end Android model, HTC One (Max), Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2 or 3, Xperia Z1, Oppo Find 5, Oppo N1, Moto X (or any 2013 Motorola device), or Padfone Infinity over the leading WP model any day. Hell, I would rather have an iPhone 5 or 5S over a WP device, or even a mid-range Android like the HTC One mini.

The fact that WP is still so young compared to the competition and thus less developed automatically makes it lose in every single comparison, unless it's strictly low end; in mid-range to high end, WP loses every single time.

21.papss (unregistered)

To be honest, neither one does much to interest me. Without the added functionality that the Note line brings, these are just devices that are big for the sake of being big. Having a big screen is nice, sure, but sacrificing being able to use it with one hand or keeping it comfortably in your pocket is a weak trade-off.

Until phablets add great productivity options a la Note 3, they are more of a novelty than anything else.

I really want to like the 1520 but it is missing some major media related things like Adobe Flash in the web browser, a real live video streaming app (PlayOn or Mobile TV) and speakers usable for listening to media.

Been using the Max for about a week and it's AWESOME! Very happy with this phone. The front facing speakers are incredibly loud and it's great to watch videos on. Considering the 1520 won't even be released on Verizon, this was an easy choice!

22.taikucing (unregistered)

That's only because you haven't spent time using it, and you're not aware of what it had to offer.. Windows Phone is great, and does everything it needs to.. Any new features will be the icing on the cake..

Hm, even after reading this I still don't know which of these two phones to replace my Note 3 with. Coming from Sense on the One I cannot get over how ugly touchwiz is... Stick with what I know is great or try an amazing Nokia?

I replaced my Note 3 with the Max. Partly because I think I removed my stylus from the Note maybe one time and also the loudspeaker on the Note 3 kinda sucked. I hated having to cup my hand around it to amplify it at work so we could look at videos. But the main reason I replaced it with the Max is because I live in a rural area and the Note 3 had practically zero reception (unlike my Note 2) and kept dropping our wifi signal. The max has 3g most of the time and 4g sometimes in the same area where the Note 3 would consistently be at zero reception. I'm very happy with the Max!

Cool, thanks for the info. I have always loved HTC and sense but I thought I would try something new with better specs, but it's still not as sooth as my one x (correction, I wrote wrong in my last post). Every third time I press the home button on my Note it asks me which touchwiz to complete the task with, and other annoying stuff. Probably going back to HTC :-)

I am thinking into going to lumia 1520, from Nokia 820 + Nexus 7 set that I currently use. I am WP "fan", (yet quite annoyed because of the bad implementation of several aspects of WP and devices , e.g. no bluetooth keyboards, no hdmi out put, bad use of SD cards, slow app start, bad - the worse - phone dialing app etc), but I am very comfortable with android and the quite incosinstent performance behaviour of Nexus 7. But w.r.t. s/w there is two things that the article misses:
1. MS Office is not comparable to most other things out there (the whole package considered, with skydrive).
2. Nokia map s/w is a reason to buy the phones on its own, and there is no free equivalent in Android.
Glad to see the rough comparison about video and the screen.

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